In the fall of 2021, soon after arriving at the Golden State Annex, a private immigration detention center in the city of McFarland, Alejandro became a “housing porter.” For $1 a day, he and other detainees swept and mopped the dorm rooms, bathrooms and showers, emptied the trash and wiped down tables at the center, operated by the for-profit company Geo Group.

On the outside, Alejandro had worked as a janitor and thus was familiar with basic safety protocols — none of which, he said, were followed by Geo Group. “There was no training or demonstrations,” he said, speaking on the phone from inside the detention center. (Because Alejandro fears retaliation, Capital & Main is not using his real name.) The housing porters frequently ran out of personal protective equipment like rubber boots and gloves. When he asked for information about the chemicals they were using, he said that staff told him that they didn’t even know themselves. His requests for an eye wash station were rebuffed. Complaints about black mold growing in the shower, he said, also went nowhere.

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Last May, three advocacy organizations — the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, Immigrant Defense Advocates and Worksafe — filed a complaint with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health on behalf of Alejandro and six other detainees at Golden State Annex, alleging...

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